Salted Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Amigos, I have such a love/hate relationship with back to school time. Truthfully, I can’t wait for my kids to go to school, but it’s bittersweet, because I miss them when they’re gone. Being raised by a Latina mom, she always taught me the importance of familia. Family always came first. And you always knew.

One of my children’s love languages is snacks. They love when I bake for them. So I try to have snacks waiting for them when they get home from school, because they are HUNGRY after all that brain work. It shows them I’m thinking of them while they’re at school.

Dulce de leche was a favorite treat growing up. My mom had a short cut way to make it. Boil a can of condensed milk. That’s it. Easy peasy. I would eat it out of the can with a spoon or my mom would make alfajores, a popular South American cookie with dulce de leche.

I’m trying to pass on flavors that I grew up with, so I bake my kids one of their favorite recipes – Salted Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I need easy, and these are simple to make with 3 ingredients, but take a little longer, because you need to prep the dulce de leche.

Salted Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

• 2 packages Refrigerated TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Sea Salt

Instructions:

• Boil can of condensed milk for 3 hours. Let can cool off. It will be dulce de leche when cool (or you can buy already preapred Dulce de Leche).
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray bottom of 8 x 8 pan with cooking spray or grease pan.
• Press 3/4 package of TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough in pan.
• Pour Dulce de Leche over cookie dough in pan.
• Sprinkle sea salt on top of dulce de leche.
• Use another 1/2 package to 3/4 package of TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough to cover dulce de leche.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes until middle has set and edges are brown.
• Sprinkle more sea salt on top when you remove pan from oven.

Let bars cool. I usually put them in the refrigerator to cool or else they’ll be extremely gooey, which is not a bad thing depending on your taste preferences. My kids adore them either way. I usually have some leftover cookie dough that I make regular chocolate chip cookies with that we can share with friends. I don’t use entire packages for each layer, because then the cookie layers tend to be too thick, and don’t cook as well.